Kukla's Korner Hockey

Category: New-York-Rangers

The Rangers New York Rangers and the agent for Nikolai Zherdev are in the preliminary stages of negotiations aimed at extending the talented 24-year-old winger’s contract and thus preventing him from reaching the Group II free-agent market, The Post has learned.

“This is where I want to be,” Zherdev told The Post yesterday. “I don’t want to play in Russia next year. I want to stay here and play in the NHL, in New York, with the Rangers.

“I’m very happy here. I like the team. I like the guys. I like living here. Everything is good.”

There are very good reasons why Rangers fans are so hot to get Sean Avery back.

One is he has a rare combination of skills: He is a world-class provocateur and he also is, as coach Tom Renney used to say during Avery’s time with the Rangers, a good hockey player.

Two, he was effective, especially when he first came to New York from the Los Angeles Kings in February, 2007….

Not to be spoilsport, but there are more and better reasons why the Rangers shouldn’t come within 100 miles of him…

• His reputation is radioactive now. No flying under the radar to get under opponents’ skin in the crease. He would be the big Rangers story every day. At every stop, people would clamor to get a few words from him, hoping to hear him say something outrageous.

...And, most damaging, the goaltending was sub par. Coming off one of his sharpest efforts of the season, Henrik Lundqvist was pedestrian in nets, if that. He was shaky from the start when he committed a stick-handling gaffe that gave the Canadiens a freebie just 3:05 in.

“I thought I battled back after that bad first goal but giving up five obviously is not good enough,” said Lundqvist, who watched Montreal’s final goal, Robert Lang’s hat-trick score, sail into an empty net. “I thought the team played really well, but we can’t expect to win if I give up five goals.

“I have to play better than that. I was definitely not good enough.”

Lundqvist has allowed four goals or more in six of his last 11 starts after having surrendered that many in two of his first 24. He has yielded five or more goals in five of his last 17 starts after allowing that many in four of his previous 61. It’s a troubling trend, to say the least.

And so it should be for the Rangers at The Garden this evening when the shaky Penguins come to town.

With apologies to the punch line (“Tonight’s The Night”), perhaps the theme should be simply to pick apart the Pens whose confidence appears to be leaking out of every pore.

Granted, the Rangers have not been playing in the manner of Boston nor San Jose, but on Saturday night, they gave the capricious Capitals a good run for their Ovechkin before losing by a mere goal. Considering that Washington virtually never loses at home, the Blueshirts played them hard and well.

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to cut back on senseless Sean Avery rumormongering—what, that wasn’t one of yours?—but I couldn’t help but notice this Page Six item about Avery being spotted recently at a club in New York.

While that part was about as surprising as Tom Renney being seen watching opposing team video, what was noteworthy was that Avery was reported “hanging with former teammates…

Alexander Semin engaged in his first career fight tonight with Rangers defenseman Marc Staal, who had two small scratches under his right eye after the encounter. And for those of you who weren’t watching the game, check out the first video. Descriptions of Semin’s punches toward the end of the fight ranged from him playing the bongos to him looking like Energizer Bunny beating a drum….

What’s the problem, is the question of the day, week or month. MSG’s Joe Micheletti was asked about it on “Hockey Night Live” after the loss in D.C.

“The power play is powerless,” Joe M explained. “The Rangers had three power play chances and had (virtually) no chances to score.”

Make no mistake, it was a game in the Nation’s Capital in which the Blueshirts often played hard but not hard enough when they enjoyed the man advantage.

And if there was one plus that the locals got out of it, Petr Prucha supplied same with the game’s first goal. The ever-hustling Czech converted a Dubinsky-Zherdev play at 10:04 of the second period, putting the Blueshirts ahead, 1-0.

It’s fine for Tom Renney to call out “very key members of our hockey club who need to better,” as he did without naming names following Saturday’s 4-2 loss at the Garden to the Devils New Jersey Devils , but the head coach’s words won’t mean a thing unless he’s willing to back them up.

Which means benching and/or scratching those athletes who consistently fail to play to their capabilities, regardless of the names on the back of their uniforms, the letters on the front, or the numbers on their paychecks.

And that means Chris Drury Chris Drury , the captain who has had a distinctly disappointing Year II on Broadway. That means Scott Gomez Scott Gomez , the alternate captain who is playing the worst hockey of his life. That means Wade Redden, who for most of the season has appeared so unaccountably detached from the action around him.

“I can tell you right now, I’m not happy with the way the team played, I’m not happy with the performance of some very key people on our hockey club who need to be better,” said Tom Renney. “They need to step up and start taking charge of this hockey club and playing the way they can.”

That was foremost a reference to Chris Drury, who played an awful game - he was on the ice for all four Devils goals and was culpable on three of them - and to Scott Gomez, who was barely noticeable except when he was losing 13 of 15 faceoffs.

“We can do a lot better than this, and we can be a lot smarter as a team, too,” said Markus Naslund, Gomez’s linemate on a trio that accomplished nothing Saturday night. “These last two games here are not acceptable.”